Ferrari has found itself in a spot of bother with the recent rumors of Fred Vasseur and Benedetto Vigna being on a war path. It has been claimed that Vasseur has less power on the team as compared to what everyone believes he has. Moreover, it is a common belief that the Frenchman is already frustrated with the politics around the team.
A report has emerged on a respected Italian sports portal that says, “The problem is not an electric cable that shuts down the Ferrari. Neither is it the excessive tire wear or Leclerc’s sulking. All extremely unpleasant things but they are just the effects. “The real cause of what is happening inside the Scuderia lies in a deep rift that has opened up that has undermined two essential ingredients aimed at: (1) stability, which went down in December with the replacement of the team principal (Mattia Binotto out, Frederic Vasseur in) and (2) a certain unity that was in the team, albeit with some grumbling.”
“The rift between Vasseur and the managing director Benedetto Vigna constitutes the true epicenter of the ongoing earthquake orchestrated by president John Elkann, who in effect put Vigna in charge of Vasseur, who now operates with powers inferior to those of his other nine peers in Formula 1. That means: he has no control over the team, a responsibility that usually pertains to the role of team principal,” the report added.
Looking at the above statements, it is very clear that Ferrari has got quite a few off-track problems to take care of. Putting Vigna in charge of Fred Vasseur was not a good move for Elkann, and Vasseur is probably unhappy. Team Principals expect freedom to do things a certain way, and Vasseur also expected the same.
Moreover, the hierarchy at Ferrari was the one who decided to entrust Fred Vasseur with the role of Team Principal ahead of the 2023 campaign. The least they could have done was to allow him to run things in his own way. Moreover, Vasseur has a wealth of experience in F1, he ran a team like Alfa Romeo very successfully until the last tear.
Ferrari has got reliability problems with the SF-23
The Maranello-based Ferrari F1 Team lost out to Red Bull in the Championship last year because of reliability issues. They had the pace to go wheel to wheel with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez but lacked reliability, as both Leclerc and Sainz scored quite a few DNFs last year.
Considering this fact, the Tifosi hoped the team had managed to resolve its reliability issues during the winter break. However, the same problem occurred again during the first race of the current campaign in Bahrain. Charles Leclerc retired on lap 41 of the race with an engine-related issue.
Moreover, while reliability was an issue for Ferrari in Bahrain, its race pace was not as good as everyone expected. Sainz and Leclerc could not keep pace with the Red Bulls during the race. To give a clearer picture of the pace difference, Max Verstappen won the Bahrain GP with a margin of around 11 seconds.
The 2023 F1 season has got off to a chaotic start for the Maranello-based F1 team. Things are falling apart everywhere one looks, and taking this into account, would Fred Vasseur and Co. be able to keep their inner tussles aside and deliver a strong result in Jeddah? Or would we see the team producing another disappointing result?
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